


Alorian Empire

by MacShea



Category: Actor RPF, Real Person Fiction
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Butler character is based off every freaking movie he's ever been in, Crowe character is based on Jekyll from The Mummy, F/M, I love Gerard's Accent, Magick is elemental, Magick is real, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, RDJ character is based on Tony Stark, Renner Thinks With His Dick, Renner character is based off of Gamble from SWAT, Royalty, Science Fiction & Fantasy, alternative universe, not on earth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:29:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27828283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MacShea/pseuds/MacShea
Summary: Everyone welds an element, some grow powerful, some grow rich, some find their other half.General Gerard has worked his life to prove he's more than the bastard son of a rich royal. Imperial Princess Autumn thinks she's in love until her world collides with General Gerard's. When they bind their future together to get what they think they want, they get more then they bargained.When the General's royal side decides to exploit his new found status for their own benefit, it backfires and causes havoc on more than just the new couple. It may cause a war in the Empire.
Relationships: Chris Evans/OFC, Chris Evans/Original Female Character, Gerard Butler/OFC, Gerard Butler/Original Female Character, Jeremy Renner/Original Female Character, Jeremy Renner/ofc





	1. Do Not Disturb

**Author's Note:**

> Too many movies have gone into the creation of this, and I refuse to apologize for any of it. Making Gerard Butler and Chris Evans brothers was just fun. Robert Downy, Jr as the Emperor (think Tony Stark), and Russell Crowe as Gerard and Chris' father (think Henry Jekyll from "The Mummy"). Jeremy's character was based off of Brian Gamble from SWAT, so yeah, he's a bit of an asshole, but he still has feelings damnit. 
> 
> I also won't apologize for the Princess. She's young and spoiled, and believes a few things that, well, are her perception of her reality.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!!!

The Honor Guard watched as the new General approached flanked by several of the high-ranking Imperial military Commanders and Honor Guard Captains. They were seeking the Commander of the Honor Guard, the personal bodyguard of the Imperial Princess, Commander Jeremy. 

“General,” the two Guards stationed at the door immediately came to attention, as feminine giggles could be heard behind the closed doors causing several of the Honor Guards in attendance to snicker. 

“Open the door,” the General ordered.

“Sir?” the guards asked, looking from the General to one of their Captains with a questioning glance. “The Commander is slightly indisposed,” one tells the assembled group of men as a loud burst of laughter was heard.

“I can hear,” General Gerard tells the men stationed before him. “Open the door.”

“Yes, sir,” the men tell him as they unlock the large bedroom doors and step aside. As the men pass, the guard stop their Captains. “Captain the 'Do Not Disturb Order' came from the Imperial Princess, not the Commander.”

“Shit, he’s with Autumn?” Pablo asked, rolling his eyes.

“Where else would the Imperial Princess be than with the Commander?” the guard quietly asked.

“Well this should be fun,” Pablo replies as they enter the bedroom of their Superior Officer as they hear the new General make himself known.

“Commander Jeremy,” General Gerard yells out above the laughter and moans, finally finding the Commanding Officer of the Honor Guard fighting his way out from under a sheet. His hair was in his face, his nakedness was apparent, and the feminine form that he was hiding behind him giggling.

“Yes, who’s asking?” he grinned, “And it better be important. I ordered those doors locked and stated I wasn’t to be disturbed. Who are you?”

“Commander,” Captain Pablo stepped forward, “General Gerard arrived this morning from Athenia. He asked to speak with you immediately and discuss the continuation of the Honor Guard’s division from the Imperial Army under your command.”

“General Gerard,” Jeremy grins at him, “I’d stand at attention, but I’m not dressed for the occasion. And what continuation, the Honor Guard can only be dissolved by Royal Decree, and the Emperor Robert has issued no such proclamation. No offense General, but I will not walk away from my post. That’s why I didn’t take the promotion to General, sir. The Princess is my job to protect.”

“The middle of the day, I find you rolling around in your bed chambers with some whore, and you claim that you have the Princess’ best interest in mind?” Gerard asks. “Do you even know where Her Royal Highness Princess Autumn is right now Commander?”

“The safest place she could have been General,” Jeremy tells him, with a smirk, “With her personal bodyguard, behind what was two locked doors that were guarded by two additional Honor Guards.”

Gerard watched as the body behind the Commander moved, and the purple hair and vivid green eyes appeared over his shoulder, her smile bright and wicked. “General Gerard,” Jeremy growls, as Autumn bites his shoulder with a giggle, “May I introduce the Heir to the Alorian throne, Her Royal Highness Princess Autumn, the so-called whore in my bed.”

***********

Gerard walked with Jeremy as they proceeded from the private quarters of the palace to the War Room, a meeting room where Military and Tactical Decisions were hashed out around data tables, star charts and elemental charts of the most powerful known welders in both the Empire and the Universe. The Emperor and other High-Ranking Officials awaited them there.

“She won’t hold it against you,” Jeremy tells him with an easy grin as they walk past the training rooms where the Honor Guards practiced in weapons, hand-to-hand-combat, and elemental welding. “Autumn, she will probably bust your balls a bit, but it won’t be malicious. Now if you would have said that about a few other royal ladies, we’d be looking forward to a public execution and looking for a new General.”

“Should I ask?” Gerard glances at him.

“Autumn was 20 moon seasons old when she begged me to stop protecting her from myself. She told me that if she couldn’t take a lover because the risk was too great than she was claiming me as her lover because I was safe. I have honored that position to her and only her since that day. I just don’t make it a habit of letting people know that about us, it is easier to let them think I’m easy. A few of the Captains and Honor Guard know the truth and have kept it private.” 

“So, you truly believe that the Honor Guard should continue as it is?” Gerard asks as they make their way toward the closed doors of the War Room where the Emperor is waiting for them. He stops Jeremy a distance off waiting for an answer.

“Yes, these guards have offered their lives in service of this family, and they are excellent at their jobs.”

“And you, can you do your job in service of the Princess no matter what?” Gerard asks.

Giving the General a relaxed smile, Jeremy tells him, “Sir, I’ve got her, she’s mine.”


	2. Ice Meets Lightning

Later that day in the meeting with the Emperor and General, Jeremy slams his hands down onto the table as Autumn stands at the window listening. “You can’t disband the Honor Guard,” Jeremy tells the General. “I know this woman, those men who protect them know this family, and without that knowledge you will get them killed.”

“How much say do I have in any of this?” Autumn finally asks as she watches the first moon rise above the horizon.

“My daughter, why don’t you let the politics to men,” Emperor Robert tries to tell his daughter as he rubs the bridge of his nose. He didn’t need to hear about love and rainbows, and how much she needed Jeremy in her life. As Emperor, he needed him to do his damned job and protect her.

Her laughter was his answer, “And what, when I rule should I just let men rule for me? Will the General rule my Empire and make my decisions father?”

“The General would make a suitable consort, husband and Emperor, my daughter,” Robert finally announces on a sigh giving his opinion on the matter, making Jeremy and Autumn both look between the two men across the table.

“Contemplating breaking your oath to me father?” Autumn asks, and walking behind Jeremy she whispers, “Do not be foolish.”

“No my beautiful,” Robert tells her standing up and approaching her, “Talented, amazing, wonderful, daughter,” he finally holds her by the upper arms, “However, you have not even shown an interest in any of the men of the royal houses who have surrounded you your entire life. General Gerard is the second son of a prominent Grecian Prince. I was just expressing my wish to see you happy, and your availability to suitable options.”

“My understanding of my options, father,” she states, “Was whomever I fell in love with and choose to spend my life with. The man I wanted to have children with. My choice in consorts was not to be a political decision. You promised my mother on her deathbed that we would not be forced into loveless marriages for this empire, which she was against in her life.” Pulling away from her father, she spins turning to face the general and walking in his direction, her voice rose in intensity and animosity as she approached, finally spitting the final words directly up into Gerard’s smirking face. “Hence, why I am not betrothed to some nobleman’s arrogant son.”

“Leave us,” Gerard orders, “And your majesty if you could be so kind as to take Commander Jeremy with you. I promise Commander to deliver her to her private chambers when we are done conversing. I will alert you when I am no longer with her,” he specifically tells the Commander. When the room was empty, Gerard cast a silence and invisibility spell making their words and actions completely void to all. He watched as his magick made her shiver, forcing an instinctive “Sorry” from his lips.

That made her smile. “Generals have the privilege of not needing to apologize for the strength of their magick. You draw your magick from dry and cold, the freezing fire of ice. In a poet’s hands a beautiful art, in a warrior’s a deadly weapon. I get a distinct impression you were taught to be both.”

“You are a woman of many faces and talents,” he smiles at her. “I don’t believe I have ever seen someone’s attitude change that fast before. So, which is it Imperial Princess, am I an arrogant royal’s son or a warrior with the heart of a poet?”

Laughing, she smiles at him. Biting her bottom lip, she tilts her head and truly looks at him. He was Grecian, tall and broad shouldered. Well-built with a muscular chest. They sure liked to breed them pretty in those royal families, she remembered. Those Prince and Princesses, Dukes and Duchesses and Counts and Countesses only ever ended up marrying the most beautiful of their people born in their planetary system of one planet and three habitable moons, and Gerard was gorgeous. His looks were rugged though, so his father was more likely from Grecia, oh, she knew who his father was, and now she understood him. She really needed to pay more attention to the nobility around her. If Gerard’s father was the Prince of Grecia, then he was directly below the Imperial crown holding the entire planetary system in the name of the Imperial family. And while she only knew a handful of the asinine Grecian nobility, she did know Gerard’s family, and his brother wasn’t heir because he was older, he was heir because he was legitimate. His father had given both of his sons the same education, had ensured his son’s well-being, but the experience had obviously created a very different man from Prince Chris.

“You are very much an arrogant royal’s son, and I know you have earned your right to be called General, when you very much didn’t need to,” she tells him, small smirk playing at her lips, “However, the poet you will have to prove. And speaking of arrogant royal’s how is your brother? Still the party hopping playboy whose exploits make the daily gossip bytes?”

“I am not my brother Princess,” he purrs at her, stepping closer and tipping his head down.

“Obviously not,” she replies, biting her lip again, “I wouldn’t let your brother lead a band let alone an Imperial Army.” That made him laugh, and his laugh made her smile. “I want the Honor Guard to remain in place General,” she tells him. “I will not stake my sister’s lives on a whim. I trust the Captains, and I do not trust easily. My Empire is expansively bigger than the Grecian Kingdom. We have 22 planets and 47 moons, with several outposts in distant systems where travelling portals are still being constructed," she waves her hand in demonstration to several of the star charts on display at a nearby data table, "This is what you are responsible for General, and my father thinks it’s more important for you to court me?”

“I think your father still thinks you’re a virgin,” Gerard tells her, “And I came here with the understanding that you were very single.”

“Commander Jeremy doesn’t have the birth credentials you do Prince Gerard to make him acceptable to marry, and you of all people know exactly how that feels. Jeremy is good enough to stand at my side and die for me but not stand at my side and rule with me.” Finally making a decision, she sits against the table and folds her arms prepared to offer the Grecian Prince the opportunity of a lifetime. “If I allow you to court me, become Royal Consort, I want something in return,” she tells him.

Stepping closer, he puts his hands on either side of her hips effectively trapping her against the table. “So, in order to get you, I have to give you something,” he replies with a grin, “And what is it you want.”

“I’ll give you my Empire, you can court me, my father can decree our marriage in whatever amount of time it will take to arrange the fiasco, I’ll marry you at that time, and I will give you heirs.”

“Sounds amazing, but what’s the catch Princess?”

“I want Jeremy,” she grins up at him and watches his eyes turn cold.

“You expect me to allow my wife to continue to bed another man?” he snarls.

“Well, that’s part of it. He will also remain my personal Honor Guard. I will guarantee that all our children will be yours, but yes, I will continue to take the man I love to my bed.”

“Why not just tell daddy that he’s the one?” Gerard demands, “Why include me at all?”

“Because no matter what my mother wished for me, I am the heir to the Alorian Empire,” Autumn whispers and Gerard can hear the pain her declaration causes, and it gives him pause. “I will never be permitted to marry for love. The best I can hope is that the man I marry will agree to my terms to gain the throne. You seem a reasonable enough man, one who may understand my plight, one who may himself have something to prove. I think we can help each other.”

“What makes you think I have…”

“Don’t tell me that marrying me and becoming the Ruling Alorian Imperial High Prince wouldn’t fuck your family’s world up,” she whispers against his lips, “Because within the hour of us unifying our marriage, my father will prepare to step down making you and I Ruling Imperial High Prince and Princess. All that does is gives us a five-year window or less to rule with him in the shadows before a huge celebration where he steps down naming you and I Ruling Alorian Emperor and Empress. I figure he’ll do that when I give him a grandchild. Your father and brother will never be more than they are right now, and I’ve heard the rumors; just how badly you want to prove to daddy that he backed the wrong son. You outrank them the second I say yes. Or rather you say it.”

“Is our entire marriage going to be like this?” he grins at her before slamming their lips together in a kiss that was over far too soon for Autumn’s liking and left her slightly confused as she stared up at her Consort.

“Gods I hope so,” she whispers, earning a chuckle from Gerard.

“Can I tell your father you’ve agreed to my terms,” Gerard asks, tucking a loose piece of hair behind her ear.

“Do you have any terms?” she quickly asks.

“You’ve already covered my terms,” he tells her, a moment of hesitation settling across his face before he nods and smiles down at her. “I’ll do it. Just reciprocate me this promise the children will be ours and ours alone.”

“You will be my husband, my Emperor. I promise on the Alorian throne, the children born of our marriage will be ours,” she swears holding her left heart palm out as Gerard gently grasps it in his where their magicks meet in the bind of courtship built on this promise to their future. As his freezing fire met her electrical storm for the first time it was like being caught in a powerful ice storm of lightening so cold it cracked the air. When their magick released them, they were naked and wrapped in one another’s arms coming down from intense orgasms in one of the meeting room chairs that had been situated around the table. Pulling her against his chest, Gerard began laughing and finally tapped the communication device implanted behind his ear.

“Yes General,” came the immediate reply.

“Can you please inform the Emperor that Her Royal Highness Princess Autumn has agreed to my terms and I to hers, the magick is in accordance?”

“Immediately General,” came the excited reply and Gerard knew the palace would know of their courtship long before the Emperor made the announcement.

“We may want to get dressed,” came Autumn’s sleepy reply as she nuzzled against him.

“The room’s still on lockdown,” he reminds her, his hand cupping the back of her neck, his fingers rubbing rhythmically, “And I doubt he’d interrupt us. So, I’m going to ask a stupid question here, but I’m guessing you’ve been using magick birth control up until this point? Which means?”

“Which means, there’s a chance they might want to plan this fiasco of a wedding fast,” she giggles.

“I think we should try again,” he tells her, his hands drifting down her back to cup her ass and roll her against his hardening cock which was still buried deep inside her body, “In fact, I insist since I can’t remember the first time.”


	3. Trapped Lightning

Gerard woke the next morning to a warm body nestled against his front and insistent knocking on his door. Opening his eyes, he quickly noticed that he wasn’t in his room, and it wasn’t quite morning yet. The sky outside the windows were barely shining with the Alorian sunrise but it was bright enough to show him the exquisite color of his future wife’s hair as the light began to soften the purple from the darkness and shadow. She turned her head, and her lips came into view and he remembered kissing her for the first-time last night. She was a magick of rare qualities, electricity and water, a thunderstorm made physical and kissing her was like kissing a bolt of lightning, dangerous but you never wanted to stop.

When the knocking started again, he groaned and waved his hand banishing the locking spell he’d cast last night to allow entry to the early morning intruder to their solitude. “If this isn’t important, I may freeze you into a permanent block of ice,” he growls into the darkness.

“General,” Jeremy announces himself, his voice as calm and professional as he can force himself to be at his moment, “I was sent to retrieve you and the Princess. You have a problem.”

“How in the bloody fucking hell did this happen?” Gerard screams at the palace Human Resource people as the early morning news has his brother’s face all over it stating that early morning reports are coming out of the Alorian Imperial Palace that the heir to the Imperial Throne Her Royal Highness Princess Autumn has chosen Prince Chris of the Grecian Kingdom to be her consort. The next station had his father and brother doing an interview. 

“We have our people trying to do damage control?” Robert tries to calm his soon-to-be son-in-law. “The best thing you two can do is a have a strong united front during the press conference here at the palace this morning while I proclaim your betrothal. Since I’m guessing the two of you spent the night together, we can play that card.”

“Oh, I like how you’re thinking Your Majesty,” Gwyneth, from HR begins furiously typing at her data pad.

“You’re going to leak a pregnancy rumor?” Autumn glares at her father.

“Discreetly, after the press conference,” Robert tells his daughter, “But I’m not going to allow that party boy to let my empire think you’ve chosen him. You could marry anyone, anyone, but someone like him. It’s bad enough, Gerard, your father chose him to rule Grecia. I’m hoping one of your children will eventually be placed there in replacement, hmm,” and Gerard knew it wasn’t really a question and more than a suggestion.

“Might be the perfect station for Princess Winter,” Gerard suggests of Robert's middle daughter and Autumn's sister, as he shrugs on the coat he was handed as Autumn was standing to meet him near her father.

“I knew there was a reason I liked you,” Robert gives Gerard a scandalous grin as they open the doors to the press room and the noise begins in earnest.

“Yes,” Robert begins immediately, motioning for the noise to calm even before reaching the dias, where he starts the press conference with Autumn and Gerard standing slightly behind and off to the side of him as the Honor Guards flank the area, “We understand that there have been some rumors leaking from the palace in the last few hours and certain parties have taken those rumors and used them to their advantage,” he tells the assembled reporters, “I, Emperor Robert, would like to announce the betrothal of my eldest daughter, Heir to the Alorian throne, Her Royal Highness Princess Autumn, to yes one of the sons of Prince Russell, Duke of the Grecian Kingdom, however, the betrothal is to his eldest son, General of the Imperial Army, Imperial Royal Consort, Prince Gerard.”

Autumn felt Gerard gently squeeze her hand while her father was talking and a moment of biting cold before it settled into the tingling of magick that actually felt like it may have drawn upon her own briefly before he withdrew his hand and she found herself staring down at a Consort’s ring made of storm and ice. She knew she looked gloriously stunned when he looked far too pleased with himself and he bent down to brush a gentle kiss across her lips. “That is us,” he whispers.

“I knew you were a poet and not just a warrior,” she whispers back, earning her a smile as they both forgot the cameras and the people around them. The Honor Guards surrounding the royals watch as Jeremy slips away into the crowd for the first time in a decade abandoning his post at Autumn’s side.

Autumn and Gerard are jolted back into reality when HR nudges then forward to join Robert at the front of the dias and the microphones. “Lovebirds,” Robert jokes making the reporters laugh as Gerard wraps his arm around Autumn pulling her into his side and placing her firmly between himself and her father. When she places her hand on his chest to steady herself the ring is firmly on display as the lights catch the brilliance of the both the permanent ice crystals and the ice and lightening magick trapped within the large central gem. It was a masterful display of Gerard’s control over their combined powers, and a possessive demonstration of their entangled magicks.

“So, when is the wedding?” one reporter finally asks, being the first to snap out of the awe over the ring which had caught even the Emperor by silent pleased surprise.

“As soon as possible,” Robert announces surprising both Autumn and Gerard, giving a wicked grin to the assemblage before him, “The next full moon on Prince Gerard’s home world of Grecia in one months’ time. I am sure Prince Russell would love to host this auspicious occasion to our Empire. And I am more than certain he is watching. After which I will, effective immediately, be stepping aside as acting Emperor. From the moment of their union, Princess Autumn and Prince Gerard will be ruling as acting Imperial High Prince and Princess of the Alorian Empire.” With that statement, he ushered them all off the stage to a silent crowd of reporters.


	4. Fire and Ice

Gerard was in the War Room later that day devising strategies with the Grecian Commander and Captains for the preliminary arrivals to Grecia and initial wedding preparations when Jeremy finally arrived at his summoning. Noticing the Honor Guard, Gerard waved the others away from the large data table and sealed the room leaving just the two of them. Waving Jeremy closer, Gerard simply states, “You left your post this morning,” never bothering to look up from the diagram he was still studying of the palace his father called home. 

“Yes, your majesty,” Jeremy replies watching Gerard glance up at the title instead of his rank. Leave it to this man to be the first to decide he should be addressed as the royal not as the military leader. Gerard instantly knew Jeremy was a politician and had prepared himself to be at Autumn’s side. “I am sorry, but as an individual with emotions of my own, I could not stand there and perform to the capacity necessary to my station. I felt it best to disengage myself and allow the other Honor Guards perform to capacity with my absence. Stating that your Majesty, you are still acting General.”

“I am until a replacement can be found and promoted at an appropriate time,” Gerard nods giving Jeremy his full attention, “Why?”

“Prior to your appointment, I was approached about being a potential candidate for General. I declined because of Autumn. I would like to renegotiate that candidacy.” 

“I can’t,” Gerard tells him, the magick of his binding promise to Autumn burning in his veins. “Autumn made me promise that I wouldn’t take you from her. You were the only thing she negotiated for in our marriage contract.”

“Then why the fuck did she choose you,” Jeremy hisses, the first crack in his emotions bursting through. But not his magick, Gerard noted. He’d give the Commander that, Jeremy had a amazing control over his magick.

“I just know that only she can release me from my promise. I can’t release you, but Autumn can.”

“So, if you could get me away from her you would, but you’ll keep your promise? Why make it knowing she loved another? Knowing I loved her?”

“I think you’ll make an excellent candidate for General Jeremy. If you can convince Autumn to let you go, I’ll promote you or at least find you a compatible position in the Empire.”

“So, you’d give me the titles I’d need to finally marry her. With all due respect your majesty but fuck you Gerard. I know her better than you ever will. You know Robert told me I could marry Autumn; he was just waiting for a confirmation of a magickal binding. Autumn just…”

Gerard smirked as he walked around the data table and the several steps to stand over Jeremy finally realizing exactly what had happened, cutting him off with a wave of his hand. “So, it wasn’t Robert that hadn’t believed you weren’t good enough for more than a fuck,” he chuckles, the binding spell holding Jeremy to their lives weakening as Autumn’s declarations of love for this man begins to shatter, “It was Autumn. Don’t you get it Jeremy, she had you for five years, no shared magick, no binding contract, no babies, no promises. Within 24 hours, I’ve stolen your girl, shared magick that I’ve tasted lightning on her kisses, bound her to me threw magick in courtship, woven our magicks together, and possible fucked a baby into her, well I tried a few times at least. Now I gave her you, you can guard her body and visit her bed and continue to be the shadow you’ve always been, but the rest of her life, the vibrant living parts, her heart, her magick, her children, they are promised to me. You want out, have her release you and I’ll let you go in the same moment. But if you stay, understand, I will fuck my wife every chance she gives me. Her nights will be spent in my arms. When her belly grows round with child, it will be my child. And I will spend the rest of my life giving her reasons to love me, our family and our life together.”

“Permission to return to my post, sir,” Jeremy simply replies, voice void of emotion.

Taking the remaining steps that brings them toe-to-toe, Gerard drops his voice into a deathly calm tenor that left no room for misinterpretation when he simply states, “The next time you can’t do your job because of your relationship, it will be your last error as Honor Guard. Her safety is your priority, it should have always been your priority. It will from this moment forward always remain your first priority, even over your own feelings. This was what I was trying to make you understand yesterday. Do I make myself clear Commander?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good,” Gerard nods stepping away and returning to the data table, where after a moment he looked up waving Jeremy away, “You’re dismissed Commander. Return to my Consort’s side, I am very certain reporters are making things difficult, and please inform her we leave for Grecia within the week.”

Jeremy relieved Pablo outside of Autumn’s private chambers, and when she tried to speak to him he refused to acknowledge her. “Ok, you know what,” she finally yells at him only to have him cut her off.

“No, you know what Autumn,” Jeremy yells gently guiding her back into her private rooms and shutting the door to prevent nosey palace passerby’s from overhearing their private conversation, “I was good enough for the last five years to fuck but not marry, so I’m done just being the guard you’re in lust with who you made fall in with you. I’m your Honor Guard, just let me go and finally find someone who wants me for me.”

“I want you for you,” she tries to tell him, grabbing his hand, “I…”

Shaking his head, Jeremy pulls her in for a kiss and for the first time ever letting his magick out and allowing their elements to mix, but the second his fire met the electrical ice that was now a permanent part of her magick. He instantly pulls away, blood smeared on both their lips from the magickal backlash he had received.

“Could have married me at any time,” he tells her, the laugh he lets out is full of pain and heartbreak. “I asked your father for permission to marry you. Do you know what he told me? As long as it was your idea, he’d support it. But he forbid me from telling you that, told me he’d know if I did because you’d traipse your ass down there and demand you and I were to be married if I did, but if left alone you’d always pick the Empire and I wasn’t good for the Empire. I told him he was wrong, that you just weren’t ready to get married yet, but when you were, I’d be your choice. Guess which one of us was right that day. So, I’ll stay and be your Honor Guard because I know you better than anyone, and I’m damn good at my job.” Stepping back out of her reach, he shakes his head, “But you’re not mine anymore, you never were.”

****************

Later that day, Autumn finds Gerard in the War Room. Her afternoon had been spent in thought and self-reflection. She didn’t know what to do about Gerard and Jeremy, but she was bound in her future to the man standing before her as she approached with magick flickering upon her fingertips. 

“Is that spell for me?” he asks as Commanders and Captains quickly depart leaving the newly bound couple alone for the first time in hours.

“No, but I’ve learned that I can do this,” she grins holding her palm out and forming a single large snowflake of exquisite detail that the electricity of her magick seemed to enjoy racing across the surface like small dragons.

“Imagine what you’ll do when our magicks merge fully,” he tells her when he lifts her onto the table and steps between her legs getting as close as possible while clothed.

“Marriage typically doesn’t grant the other access to their partners magick,” she whispers up to him.

“Magickally binding marriages always give the other access to their partners magick,” he tells her, “But not everyone is as adept as you and I. Most individuals can’t control their own power let alone a secondary. I have something to tell you, and I tell you only because it affects our courtship promise. I told him no, but Jeremy has requested a position away from you and the palace.”

“Thank you for both telling me and keeping your promise,” she tells him, her grin becoming sad. “I never considered he may not want to be a part of this or to stay and to make him would be cruel.” With a great sigh, she took Gerard’s hand and called upon their magick, “If he asks again to go, give him a position of respect for his years of service to me and let him go.” 

As the spell settles into their current binding, Gerard actually can breathe a little easier at his decision to marry this woman. He may well get the marriage of his dreams. “I know I’ve only known you a short time Princess,” he tells her as the hand she was holding finds purchase around the side of her neck, his thumb stroking her cheek, “But I think I might actually love you just a little already.”

“Well my father keeps telling the girlfriend he doesn’t think I know he has,” she giggles when Gerard’s expression becomes one of amusement, “That we’ll make such beautiful babies.”

“He’s dating the woman from Human Resources?” Gerard quickly puts things together. “Pepper?”

“Well Gwyneth, Pepper is a nickname he gave her over a dinner party incident, but yes, and I believe she is the reason he is stepping down so young. He can love her without the Empire watching, that and perhaps while they are travelling the Universe find my youngest sister a husband.”

“You’re all so fucking devious,” Gerard growls pulling her mouth to his as she begins to laugh. When he finally released her mouth to nibble along her jaw, she was breathless. “I want you naked and in our bed,” he tells her, “I want to worship every inch of skin I reveal, find the places that make you writhe in pleasure, that make me need to hold you in place as you scream my name. I want to mark your pale flesh with kisses and teeth marks, finger bites from too much pressure,” he demonstrates as he grabs her hips and roughly pulls her up until she is wrapping her legs around his waist and arms around his neck to find purchase as his mouth descends upon her once again.

This time it was the beeping in his ear that separated them. Tapping the offending object, he barks, “Yes!”

“General, I was told to inform you,” the palace information personnel tells him, “Prince Russell and Prince Chris have arrived.”

“Fucking hell,” he sighs.


	5. Wind and Smoke

Prince Chris was at the bar having his third drink mixed when he noticed his brother standing at the doorway to the dining room. Chris just shook his head and accepted his drink.

“One would think you would be happy to have your brother being named future Emperor,” came a beautiful voice from behind him, as the silver hair of Princess Winter came into his view.

“Your Highness,” Chris tips his head in respect.

“Winter, please,” she smiles at him claiming the chair at his side. “So, what has you looking so forlorn?”

“You want the short version or the truth?” he gently asks and tells her why being here for this is difficult. It wasn’t Chris’s fault the old man had fucked Gerard’s mother before marrying Chris’s mom, but Gerard didn’t see it that way. On Gerard’s 21st moon season, after graduating the Imperial Academy with an impeccable record and Honors, Prince Russell had still declared the 15-year-old Chris as his legitimate son and heir. Bitter words had been shouted between the two men, and unfortunately, Gerard had stormed off. Chris had lost his brother, rock and role-model at only 15, nor had he he seen his brother in the last ten years. Now here the bastard was about to become Emperor and being handed everything their father wouldn’t give him by the most powerful man in the Empire. 

Winter sipped her drink and when Chris finished she simply reached a hand out and placed it over his in comfort not expecting the shock of their magicks when he turned his palm over to hold her hand. “Well, that was interesting,” she says, but leaving her hand in the warm of his when he smiles at her. “I can understand both sides,” she tells him, stopping him with a simple shake of her head when he would start again. “Your brother was eldest and like you the nature of his birth was not of his choosing. He felt betrayed by your father and left to find his own way in our world. He has been an officer of the Grecian Army since his graduation, and the Grecian Commander of the Imperial Army for the past five years, so he has been near you, protecting you. Perhaps he feels betrayed by you as well when you never reached out to him, just choosing to live as if he was a hired solider at your beck and call as you partied and drank your way across our Empire.”

“He’s been in the Grecian Kingdom these past five years?” Chris clarifies, sitting up a little straighter.

“Yes, living on Athenia,” Winter gives him a knowing smile. “So here is my question, are you angry that he will be Emperor or that you will not?”

“No, I don’t know your sister, I was shocked when I heard the rumors,” he tells her, “I’m mad at our father for using this as a political move now that Gerard has something worth exploiting.”

“If I may point out, your father has been exploiting your brother since his birth,” Winter simply tells him, calling her magick and giving Chris a brief smoky glimpse at Gerard’s perspective of things, the military schools, the Imperial Naval Academy, all the while prepping Chris for ruling, he was prepping Gerard for Command of the Grecian Army to protect the family’s interests in maintaining dominion over the Grecian System.

“You’re an Oracle,” Chris finally realizes, voice dropping into a whisper. “Your magick hasn’t been seen in eons.”

“I hear things in the wind and see things in the smoke of my magick,” she admits, “I would not call myself an Oracle, more of a seerer because some things are so strong I can tell you the color of the shirt you’ll be wearing, and others are wisps on the edge of my vision, just instincts. I see danger coming, and I fear for my sister and your brother. Warning them will not stop it, warning you might save them.”

“How?” he gently questions.

“I know not, I just know you are their current savior or their executioner,” she tells him, eyes bright with magick. “A decision you soon make will determine an outcome.”

“I hope you are not getting comfortable Chris,” Gerard’s voice breaks the delicate balance Winter’s magick had weaved about them, hiding their conversation, her winds carrying the conversation to forgotten corners away from prying ears.

It was Winter who answered for Chris, “Prince Gerard may I remind you, that while you may be my sister’s Consort you do not speak for me. Nor will you ever, even as Emperor, decide to whom I will be permitted to speak, even if that person is a member of your royal family.”

“You are correct Princess Winter,” he nods in respect to his Consort’s sister, “Is my brother treating you with respect fitting your station?” he questions, his eyes all for Chris.

“We were having a most delightful conversation, thank you,” she grins and winks at Chris.

“Then I’ll leave you to finish it,” he tells them, turning to walk away when Chris stops him. “You look good Gerard. I’ve missed you.”

“I didn’t go far,” Gerard tells him, barely turning to look back, “I’ve watched over you, and I’ve paid attention.”

“Gerard,” Winter stops him a second time.

“Yes Winter?” he asks, noticing it appeared as if she was listening to things he couldn’t hear.

“Don’t let my sister drink tonight,” she tells him as she straightens up, a large grin firmly in place. “Tell the kitchen she prefers yerva to tacha fruit tonight, and it might be a good idea to be fashionably late to dinner, so she doesn’t smell the soup. You are going to be an incredible father to my niece, and don’t ever doubt that she is yours.”

“You’re an oracle,” Gerard begins to babble, “Pregnant, Autumn’s pregnant, baby. I’m…” as he took a single step and ended up walking in a complete circle, turning to once again face Winter and Chris, “Daughter?”

It was Chris hugging him that snapped him out of the stupor, “Congratulations!”

Hugging his brother back, he held him tight for a minute, before pulling back, “I have to go, kitchen, Autumn, no soup. I’m having a baby,” he grins at his brother.

“You’re having a baby,” Chris smiles at him as he takes off before turning back to Winter. “He’s going to be a mess all dinner.”

“Most assuredly,” she laughs, “And today is only day two, the next several months are going to be a riot.”

Gerard’s first stop was the kitchen where he gently explained that there was an unexpected issue with the soup tonight and gently requested it be replaced with a salad. The cooks were slightly angry with him; that is until he explained that he most assuredly did not want it wasted, and they were to dispense it at their discretion. That made him several friends, and some knowing smiles when he also requested yerva for Autumn’s dish.

“Shall we start keeping a staff member on standby for late night requests?” Maria, the head kitchen chef gently asks with a knowing smirk.

“For Autumn or me?” he asks her with a chuckle.

Maria just raises an eyebrow before telling the soon-to-be-father, “Robert added 15 lbs. to his frame when Natalia was pregnant with Autumn. He blamed it on the magick since it was the union of their magick that created her, said it gave him the pregnancy cravings. Well if it did, he never lost them, nor did he lose the 15 lbs. We'll make the salads Consort, you just take care of our Princess. Here,” she hands him a glass of sparkling juice, “So she doesn’t bitch too badly when you take her drink.”

Autumn was with Emperor Robert and Prince Russell while her youngest sister, Princess Summer, had joined Chris and Winter across the room, while several Honor Guards, including Jeremy, stood at post at various positions throughout the space. Gerard carefully wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into his side, before leaning down to whisper into her ear, “I have a request for you to not drink tonight. May I?” he gently asks, holding the sparkling juice out to her. When she simply nods and trades glasses with him, he relaxes and finally faces their fathers.

“Ah, Prince Gerard we were just wondering where you had disappeared,” Robert states watching the small interaction between the two.

“I didn’t know you were still using your title son?” Prince Russell asks, face showing condemnation of his son’s use of the royal title he had once thrown so harshly in his face, “Or is that you only use it when it suits you?”

“Yes it is true, I prefer the titles I earned father; however, when it suits me, I am still your son,” Gerard simply answers, refusing to rise to the bait of an argument by answering truthfully.

“Which earned you the right to marry the Princess?” Russell asks.

“Both,” Gerard tells him, “Although, it was my military titles that put me in a place your nobility couldn’t reach.”

“And where was that?”

“In bed, next to her,” Gerard grins and Robert chokes on his sip of whaska ale.

“I’m fine,” Robert tells the group, as he finds his breath, trying to hide his grin. “I wonder what is holding dinner.”

“We had a late menu change,” Gerard tells him, not bothering to hide his growing smile.

“Oh?” Robert questions, his look asking why until he sees the smile Gerard is unable to control, remembers the simple exchange of glasses a moment prior, and his smile grows to match Gerard’s. “Really? And you know…”

“Someone we both trust told me,” Gerard tells him lifting Autumn previous glass to his lips and taking a large swallow of the sweet alcohol with which he was unfamiliar but finding it pleasant. “I hear Autumn was conceived in the exact same way.”

“Well I don’t need that many details,” Robert claps Gerard on the back.

“That’s not what I meant,” Gerard stutters, as Robert laughs at him, “I know, I know,” while walking away going to get the full details from his middle daughter.

It was at that moment that Autumn caught onto the conversation and she spun on Gerard, “When?”

“Binding of our magicks,” he tells her.

“No, when did you find out?” she demands.

“Just minutes ago,” he gently tells her, sitting down both their glasses and pulling her closer, “I was waiting to tell you later tonight when we were alone. I just, I had to…”

“You couldn’t not hint at it,” she tells him rolling her eyes. 

“I really didn’t,” he tells her, his chuckle was her undoing, “Your father is just really astute.”

“So, is there anything I should know?” she asks stepping closer to his body.

“We’re having a little girl,” he tells her, “And I hope she is just as beautiful and strong and wonderful as her mom.”

“So, it is official,” Russell asks, delight coloring his voice. “My bloodline will sit on the Alorian throne?”

“Yes, Gerard will be the next Emperor of the Alorian Empire,” Autumn tells the Grecian Prince, not caring for Gerard’s father, although her upbringing keeping her civility firmly in place.

“No, he actually knocked you up. My grandchild will be the next heir to the Imperial throne. How absolutely delightful,” he proclaims. His voice and attitude scaring both of his sons enough that Gerard and Chris respectively pulled Autumn and Winter closer after he’d spoken.


	6. Wind and Ice

Prince Russell was beside himself with anger at tonight’s shitshow. “Prince” Gerard his ass, that kid of his had thrown that title away ten years ago when the ungrateful bastard had told him that he didn’t need Russell as his father to get places in this galaxy. Russell had managed to keep a close grip on Gerard's career, using his political and royal connections to keep him within the Grecian System under his control, until recently that was when the Emperor, Russell thought rolling his eyes, had promoted Gerard to General taking away that control. 

Approaching one of the parlors within walking distance of both the travel portals and flight decks, near where he’d chosen to have the palace staff place him for his short stay, he was surprised to find one of the Honor Guards inside looking more than slightly inebriated. “Perhaps this won’t be a waste of a night after all,” he thought to himself, ordering a drink before approaching the lone patron.

“You look lost son,” he quietly says sitting down across from the broken looking man who was apparently finishing his fifth bottle of ale.

“Your High…” Jeremy tries to stand up and Russell stops him with a simple motion of his hand.

“I think Russ will do in this moment of time,” he offers with a calculating smile, “You look like you could use a friend right now and perhaps a friendly ear.”

“I just want to get drunk and forget,” Jeremy mumbles, “Forget all those wasted years. Should have known she was a liar, just like the rest of them. Fucking royals, all a bunch of fucking snobs.” The lone tear that falls down his cheek, he angrily brushes away, and then he remembers who he’s talking to, he tries to backtrack, “I didn’t mean, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s perfectly ok,” Russell acts understanding, wanting the guard to continue talking. Showing anger over his words would make him clam up, and he very much wanted to hear what he needed to tell someone. He motions for the parlor attendant to bring the guard another round as Jeremy wipes angrily at the tears that are flowing more freely now.

“Five years I’ve loved her,” Russell hears him whisper, “I thought she loved me too; said she did. I’m the man that held her at night, until he showed up.”

“Who son?”

“Exactly,” Jeremy snaps, “Your son.”

“Oh,” Russell finally realizes why this man looks so familiar. This was the personal guard of Princess Autumn and had been on her arm for every function the last several years. They had been an actual couple. This was better than he could have planned. 

***** 

When Chris found his father an hour later, Russell tells his youngest son, “Ah my boy, I have some interesting information you should hear.”

“I’m not sure I want to hear it,” Chris tells his father when he sees his father’s drinking companion. Drunk Honor Guards were asking for trouble, and Chris had enough of that for more than one lifetime. Shaking his head, he immediately turned to leave only stopping when Jeremy yells out, “He’s going to replace you on Grecia.”

“All our titles Chris, your brother is going to strip our family of everything,” Russell tells his son, sitting forward as Chris turns back to face the two men. 

Chris can tell that his father is remotely sober, the lone glass beside him testament of his manipulation of the situation compared to the numerous bottles before Jeremy. Pissed at the situation, once again caught between his father and brother, he yells, “Then let him do it. I’m as much a pawn in this as he because I was just a kid when you did this. It’s you he’s pissed at, but if he hates me that much too, then let him fucking do it.”

“The baby is mine,” Jeremy quietly tells him. “Five fucking years, she’s been mine, but I wasn’t good enough to marry. I get her pregnant, and she’s instantly hooking up with your brother. The baby has to be mine, but the bitch has to make my daughter’s paternity legitimate.”

“The baby is my brother’s,” Chris growls, the rage he feels at his father taking focus on Jeremy instantly making him place this man in the same category as his father. Calling his magick, he leans down over Jeremy and grabbing the chair he was sitting upon, the material freezing solid where Chris touched it, he gives his father exactly what he needs, “You need to leave your post. I want you away from my niece, even unborn, stay the fuck away from my family. I’ll resign my post as Prince of Grecia just to remain here to make sure you never get near them again.” Turning his head, the magick of ice reflecting in his eyes Chris looked at his father, “You will never get that baby either.”

“I thought we were on the same side Chris,” Russell asked startled, “Whatever was best for Grecia?”

Laughing harshly, Chris steps away from the two evil men, shaking his head as he released his magick, “This isn’t about Grecia father, this is about you.”

When Chris stormed out of the room, he never saw Winter hiding in the shadows. She caught up with him a few minutes later in the darkness of the palace gardens, kissing the ice from his lips tasting the coldness on his breath as her magick surged forward mixing wind with his ice and creating a blizzard around them. He laughed in wonderment when he pulled back and found them standing in several inches of snow.

“I’ve never had that happen,” he whispers down at the silver haired beauty in his arms, ice crystals shining in her hair. “I can’t offer you more than the man I am,” he tells her, “I’m not even sure I have any titles to be offering any of this. But I can promise to keep trying to make today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today. And I can promise to be a better father to our children than my father was to his.” Holding out his binding hand, he waited.

“I can’t offer you more than the woman I am,” she tells him, “I don’t have an Empire to offer you. I can promise to believe in us and our family no matter the circumstances we find ourselves. And I can promise to be the best mother I can be to our children.” Smiling, she slides her left hand into his and felt their magicks surge to bind their promises into their future sealing their Courtship. 

The next morning, Gerard looked out his bedroom window and nudged Autumn awake. “Was it supposed to snow?”


End file.
